The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for information processing and a storage medium for storing such a method. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and a method for information processing and a storage medium for accommodating that method, whereby advertisement information is presented in an efficient and effective manner to avatars that are active in a shared virtual space.
There have existed personal computer network services such as NIFTY-Serve (trademark) of Japan and CompuServe (trademark) of the United States. Each of these entities allows a plurality of users to connect their personal computers through modems and over a public switched telephone network to a centrally located host computer in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol. A cyberspace service called Habitat(trademark) has been known in this field.
The development of Habitat was started in 1985 by LucasFilm Ltd. of the United States. When completed, Habitat was run by QuantumLink, a U.S. commercial network, for about three years before Fujitsu Habitat(trademark) began to be offered in Japan by NIFTY-Serve in February 1990. Habitat embraces a virtual city called “Populopolis” which, drawn in two-dimensional graphics, is inhabited by users' alter egos called avatars (incarnations of Hindu deities). Through their avatars, the users carry on between them what is known as a chat (a real-time text-based dialogue in which characters are input and read by users). More detailed information about Habitat is found in “Cyberspace: First Steps” (ed. by Michael Benedikt, 1991, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., ISBN0-262-02327-X, pp. 282-307).
In a conventional cyberspace system run by the above-mentioned type of personal computer network service, virtual streets as well as house interiors were described in two-dimensional graphics. For apparent movement toward the depth of a scene or back to its front side, avatars were simply moved upward or downward against a two-dimensional background. There was precious little power of expression to make users enjoy a virtual experience of walking or moving about in the virtual space. Furthermore, a given user's avatar was viewed along with other users' avatars simply from a third party's point of view in the virtual space. This was another factor detracting from the effort to let users have more impressive virtual sensory experiences.
In order to improve on such more or less unimpressive proxy experiences, there have been proposed functions which display a virtual space in three-dimensional graphics and which allow users freely to move about in the virtual space from their avatars' points of view. Such functions, disclosed illustratively in U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,038, are implemented by use of 3D graphic data in description language called VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language). A description of various cyberspace environments in which users may carry on chats using avatars is found in the Sep. 9, 1996 issue of Nikkei Electronics (a Japanese periodical; No. 670, pp. 151-159).
Where it is desired to present advertisement information to avatars that are active in the above-mentioned shared virtual space, it has been customary to set up billboards at predetermined locations within the space, the billboards carrying the advertisements.
One disadvantage of such a conventional setup is that some billboards may turn out to be located in places where few avatars congregate. In that case, the advertisements obviously are not effective.
Another disadvantage is that users, represented by their avatars, have difficulty taking in the advertisements unless they come close to the billboards.
Furthermore, even if the billboards are erected where avatars concentrate, most of the avatars may already have seen the displayed advertisements. In that case, it becomes difficult to present the advertisement information to newly-arriving avatars that have not seen it yet.
In addition, because the advertisements remain the same in content when presented to all avatars, it is difficult to present new advertisement information efficiently to each avatar.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides an apparatus and a method for presenting advertisement information to avatars in an efficient and effective manner.